The present invention relates to a system and method for organizing the computer network components, including hardware, software, peripherals and services (i.e. Internet and online backup). This is in order to make the creation of a computer network environment more user friendly, highly organized and easy to follow. The present invention is specifically targeted at the small business owner, in order to enable them to efficiently establish their own network system. This system will enable them to run their businesses more productively, with greater ease and less down time. This is accomplished through the use of an effective kit or packaging system containing all the required network components.
Computers and their application programs are used in all aspects of business, industry and academic endeavors. In recent years there has been a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. This advance has been even further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement in the Internet in recent years. As a result of these changes, it seems as if virtually all aspects of human productivity in the industrialized world requires human and computer interaction. The computer industry has been a force for bringing about great increases in business and industrial productivity. Almost every week seems to bring computer industry advances which promise even further increases in productivity. These advances offer to drive down business and industry costs and increase efficiency, in addition to increasing productivity. In addition, the cost of xe2x80x9ccomputer powerxe2x80x9d continues to drop as a result of rapid advances in computer related technologies.
Despite all of these advantages, there still remains great resistance in all industries and business fields to new computer systems and significant system upgrades which offer much in productivity increases. This resistance results from past experience which equates to installing new computer systems or significant upgrades in existing systems with large amounts of down time during which the business, manufacturing facility or individual worker functions are inoperative or operate at diminished levels. When a business or production facility is trying to decide whether to install a new or significantly upgraded computer system, the concern about down time, the possible loss of business, as well as stress on the workers involved very often outweighs the cost of the installation in influencing the decision. The concern about business and production delays resulting from installation has become so great that fewer and fewer of even small businesses are still trying to make system and program changes on their own. The professional computer service industry which carries out and supports installations and upgrades for the business and industrial sector has been rapidly expanding over the past decade. However, even with such computer professional support the threat of such down time coupled with the costs of such professional services caused by installation delays remains of great concern, especially to the small business establishments.
The complexity of setting up a network of machines is one key reason why small business owners either do not get their business running on computers or expand the number of computer systems used in running their business. Even in a network computing environment the hardware and software components needed to build the network require a thorough understanding of all components of the network in order to put everything together. One problem is packaging of the components needed to build the network. Too many packages are required to accomplish this task. These packages offer very little and, most of the time, no documentation is supplied on how to use these components, thus requiring the end user to be an expert in setting up networks.
It is an objective of the present invention to resolve the problem of making the setting up of a network in a less complex manner and be more user friendly. Specifically more friendly to the small business owner.